TOOLBOX: HOW TO CREATE A MPA

TOOLBOX: HOW TO CREATE A MPA 40 rue des Renaudes, 75017, Paris, France. Tel : 00 33 (0)1 44 34 06 06. www.cousteaudivers.org Cousteau Divers is a non-profit organisation with exclusively scientific goals registered in France.

Cousteau Divers 2014 Designed by: Pierre-Yves Cousteau Illustrated by: Maria Padilla Climent Text by: Clara Gomez Castany and Tarik Chekchak 40 rue des Renaudes, 75017, Paris, France. Tel : 00 33 (0)1 44 34 06 06. www.cousteaudivers.org Cousteau Divers is a non-profit organisation with exclusively scientific goals registered in France.

CONTENTS 1 COUSTEAU DIVERS TOOLBOX 2 INTRODUCTION 4 HOW DOES THE TOOLBOX WORK? 5 TRY TO AVOID THE ONLY BECAUSE I LIKE IT SYNDROME 7 HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU ALREADY UNITED AROUND YOUR LET S CREATE A MPA MISSION? 10 DO YOU THINK THAT A CONSENSUS IS POSSIBLE? 13 IS THERE ALREADY ANY LEGAL PROTECTION? 15 GET THE SEED MONEY YOU NEED AND DEVELOP A PROPOSAL 18 GET THE MANAGEMENT PLAN 22 HOW CAN COUSTEAU DIVERS HELP YOU? 40 rue des Renaudes, 75017, Paris, France. Tel : 00 33 (0)1 44 34 06 06. www.cousteaudivers.org Cousteau Divers is a non-profit organisation with exclusively scientific goals registered in France.

LIST OF ACRONYMS USED: NGO: Non-Governmental Organization MPA: Marine Protected Area UNEP: United Nations Environment Programme IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature GEF: Global Environment Facility 40 rue des Renaudes, 75017, Paris, France. Tel : 00 33 (0)1 44 34 06 06. www.cousteaudivers.org Cousteau Divers is a non-profit organisation with exclusively scientific goals registered in France.

COUSTEAU DIVERS TOOLBOX Cousteau Divers is an international non-profit organization, dedicated to engage the recreational diving community in contributing of study and protect marine life worldwide, while monitoring the health of the oceans in near real-time. There are millions of divers and sea-lovers around the world: it is time that we come together as protectors, ambassadors and active guardians of our seas, not only as users of it. The environmental stress that the marine environment is facing evokes a sense of urgency to take action before we reach a tipping point. Time is not on our side. We don t need to be specialists to help to make a difference: especially through grassroots actions such as contributing to the creation of Marine Protected Areas. Whereas any individual or organisation may prepare proposals, the responsibility for formally establishing MPAs rests with the competent authorities. But you may bring the proposal to the attention of the authorities. This is the purpose of this Cousteau Divers MPA toolbox: let s take our passion and transform it into action! 1

INTRODUCTION: WHY A TOOLBOX FOR THE CREATION OF A MARINE PROTECTED AREA? Historical and current overfishing has caused in the last century a loss of 90% of the global number of fish. Data on marine biodiversity are a cause of great concern; the rate of loss of biodiversity in the oceans is 5 times greater than the loss in terrestrial habitats. Furthermore, 30% of fisheries have collapsed already; and it is estimated that by 2050 they will be all collapsed if we continue like this. The major causes of this depletion are excessive fishing capacity, insufficient regulation, weak enforcement, and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The solutions to improve fisheries are well known but difficult to implement because of cultural resistance, lack of awareness about the benefits of the solutions, insufficient government resources, and corruption. The decline of fish not only affects local fishermen but also tourist operators, especially diving tourism, because tourists tend to travel to other places with the hope of observing marine life. Diving tourism in local communities with abundant marine life generates many jobs and revenue that is up to 20 times greater than fishing. Not only that! This also helps fishermen through spillover benefits of fish from the reserve to adjacent fishing grounds. 2

One practical and successful solution to address all of these problems is no-take marine reserves, more commonly found as part of Marine Protected Areas; areas that are set aside with fishing restrictions. From the standpoint of productive fishing, the main objective of an MPA is to increase the abundance of those exploited species and general species richness within and around the protected area; which benefits both dive tourism and fisheries. According to empirical data extracted from experiences in various reserves, within only one or two years of maintaining the status, marine reserves cause, on average, an increasing of 21% in diversity, 28% in the size of organisms, 166% in density (number of individuals per unit area), and a remarkable 446% in biomass (kg per hectare), compare to unprotected areas nearby. A review by Lester et al. [1] demonstrates that areas outside reserves experienced a significant increase in number of fishes after the reserve was in place, possibly through the spillover of adults and/or the export of larvae. Empirical studies also show that higher abundance inside reserves can lead to spillover of adults to nearby fished areas [2, 3]. Despite the enormous importance of the oceans and seas, in 2010, only 1,17% of the world oceans had a protection statute. Our goal is to reach at least 20% by 2020! Join us in this lifetime endeavour! If you want to dive deeper into the science and advantages of marine reserves, you can read the following documents or websites: - [1] Lester SE, Halpern BS, Grorud-Colvert K, Lubchenco J, Ruttenberg BI, et al. (2009) Biological effects within no-take marine reserves: a global synthesis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 384: 33-46. - [2] McClanahan TR, Mangi S. (2001) The effect of a closed area and beach seine exclusion on coral reef fish catches. Fisheries Management and Ecology 8: 107-121. - [3] Roberts CM, Bohnsack JA, Gell FR, Hawkins JP, Goodridge R (2001) Effects of marine reserves on adjacent fisheries. 294: 1920-1923. - http://www.mpa.gov/pdf/helpfulresources/do_no_take_reserves_benefit_adjacent_fisheries.pdf - http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/science/03fish.html?_r=2& - http://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/november8/ocean-110806.html - 3

HOW DOES THE TOOLBOX WORK? In order to be really effective if you are seriously committed about helping to create a new Marine Protected Area, the first and most important resource you need is YOURSELF and your MOTIVATION. The sometime lengthy process you are going to face needs energy, creativity, passion, sacrifice, continuity and patience. Undoubtedly, this resource alone is not even close enough to reach the target, but it is absolutely necessary that, initially, as the leader of this endeavour, you need to find and convince more people that it s worth doing it and to be involved. You will need also to find the best expertise around you to have enough knowledge and skills to help decide how it should be done. This toolbox will serve as your checklist for each stage of this mission. We tried to make it simple and clear, so it can be understandable by any person motivated to care for marine realms. Since it is simplified, to follow each step is very important, and please make sure, that you are able to clearly answer the different questions. At the end of each chapter, you ll find a recommendation of articles, websites and resources if you want to dive deep in them to get more understanding and knowledge. If you are able to answer at least to the first 2 questions, then don t hesitate to contact Cousteau Divers if you need some help! The Cousteau Journey Continues with you! Let s make it useful! 4

1. TRY TO AVOID THE ONLY BECAUSE I LIKE IT SYNDROME Basically, this means that you ll have first to answer, Why do you think that the area you have chosen really deserves to become an MPA? Here, you have to think about all those aspects that will help you to convince others that it makes perfect sense to create a MPA because it is a special place. Your area deserves to be protected for many reasons, including because you saw your first living fish there when you were kid, but please - allow us also to introduce you to some other widely recognized other reasons: - This place contains unique and unusual geological features! (Exceptional rock formations, volcanoes, extraordinary islands, sand dunes, cave ) - Life there is amazing! (or once used to be ) That means that its ecological importance (coastal and underwater) is obvious. Is it an area that has (or had) plenty of life (marine and/or terrestrial)? Has the area some kind of suitable habitat for some rare or endangered species, which makes it unique? Has the area some uncommon type of habitat? - Presence of archaeological and historical resources? (Shipwrecks, ruins, artefacts ) 5

- The local community is amazing! Due to their historical relationship to the sea, their cultural heritage, sustainable ways of using marine resources, etc.? - It is an area of outstanding beauty (underwater and/or coastal)? Please, briefly describe your main reason. Also describe the boundaries of the interesting area; you can use this map for help! (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=es&tab=ll) Attention! Before you dive into the depth, sail on the surface! 6

2. HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU ALREADY UNITED AROUND YOUR LET S CREATE A MPA MISSION? Lonely prophets are romantic and fascinating, but it will become soon obvious that you can t be alone if you want to achieve something like this. The solidity of the project is based on having strong and diverse supporters. The higher the engagement of cooperating agents or sources is, the greater the ease to implement and develop the marine protected area. Strong community support and participation in the designation of a MPA is important for successful implementation and enforcement. 7 In order to help you to assess your needs, please try to answer to the following questions: - Do you have already a fairly good idea of the actors that should be involved in the process? Make a list of the most important ones (we call this process stakeholders mapping, try to be in their shoes and assess what kind of problems they may face, but also the benefits they can get from a MPA. It will be important to prepare yourself to convince the key stakeholders. What do the tourism operators, the fishermen, local people, etc., wish to accomplish? What are their immediate and long-term priorities? How are they currently related to the use of natural resources and how this could change in a sustainable way?

To what extent are conservation measures or ethical behaviours already in place (green labels, fair trade labels, etc.)? How much community spirit and social cohesion are there? - Identify the key players that you should have with you to be successful. Meet these key players and try to convince them first that it is worth supporting the project of a MPA. They are usually well-connected people and have the trust and respect of their community. If you convince them, they will help you to convince many others. Some of the arguments you can use to convince the sceptics are: - A MPA does not mean: stop your activity, especially if fishing, and get away from here! Full protection will be only given to limited areas where it is strategic to do so because wildlife reproduces there or because we want to create a refuge protected from damaging activities. Once the ecological communities recover, refuge areas act like a spring of life spreading all around (spillover effect) for the MPA, with often most of the time a tremendous benefit for local artisanal fishermen that will see more fishes then before around the MPA. - Especially when you think about coral reefs and mangroves areas but also healthy sand beaches, etc. Healthy and diverse habitats increase the resilience of a coast and protect it against bigger damages from catastrophic events such as hurricanes, tsunamis or the effect of climate change. Do you know that areas buffered by coastal forests, like mangroves, were strikingly less damaged by the 2004 tsunami than areas without tree vegetation? Same with corals. - Help maintain local cultures, economies and livelihoods that are intricately linked to the marine environment. When the marine resources disappear because of unsustainable uses, often- longstanding human cultures with a special link to the sea also become quickly at risk. Traditional knowledge disappears because there are just no more resources to make it relevant to transmit; it is as simple as that and it is already occurring in many places around the world. - Serve as benchmarks for undisturbed, natural ecosystems that can be used to measure the effects of human activities in other areas, and thereby help to improve resource management. - Assist in decision-making surrounding tourist, residential and industrial coastal developments. Unity is the strength! Everybody s welcome! 8

For more information and specific details, please see: - Roberts CM, Bohnsack JA, Gell FR, Hawkins JP, Goodridge R (2001) Effects of marine reserves on adjacent fisheries. 294: 1920-1923. - http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mpa/publications/pubs/benefits-mpas.pdf - http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mpa/publications/pubs/benefits-mpastechnical.pdf - http://www.mpa.gov/pdf/publications/stakeholder_synthesis.pdf - http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/maia_maia%202011%20workshop.pdf - http://hixon.science.oregonstate.edu/files/hixon/publications/048%20- %20Murray%20et%20al%2099%20Fisheries.pdf 9

3. DO YOU THINK THAT A CONSENSUS IS POSSIBLE? Let s make it crystal clear: a MPA built without consultation and consensus is a pathway to failure! Furthermore, strong participation has been demonstrated empirically to be a factor in the success of MPAs in various circumstances. With the goal of achieving increased buy-in from community stakeholders, MPA planners and managers should increasingly share some of their traditional decisionmaking powers and responsibilities with the community at large. Developing effective MPAs is typically seen as requiring the engagement of relevant stakeholders, from the start of the process. This tends to enhance information exchange, encourage accountability of experts and authorities, build confidence in the decision-making process, and allow collaborative discussion among stakeholder groups, leading to mutually acceptable solutions. If the various actors do not feel involved in the project, they will think that the managers of the MPA are actively disadvantaging and harming their sector; if you don t work in conjunction with them, you will never know their real interests. The need for community involvement has been neatly described by Kaza (1988), "With involvement come understanding, with understanding come public support and commitment". Whatever your situation, you have to earn the trust of the community; otherwise, project failure will be almost inevitable. PAUSE If you are able to answer to the 3 first questions and think that a consensus is possible, then strategy A is for you. Otherwise, if you are not able to be confident on reaching a consensus at this stage because maybe the issue is too troubled at the moment, then we advise you a plan B.! PLAN A: I know the community, the stakeholders, the key players, already convinced some of them and really think that a consensus is possible! You have already made a lot of progress if, from the beginning, a consensus among all the parties involved, however minimal, already exists. The first step you should take as a "holder" of the project is to meet with all the involved parties through several meetings, explaining to them the importance of the project and all the goals that can be achieved with the creation of the marine protected area; you can use videos, images etc. (without overusing text instead use big and 10

spacious letters!). You can show them the results obtained in other MPAs over the time; graphs and charts always help to facilitate understanding. Make your presentation last around 20 minutes; be sure to make your presentation light, clear and understandable, using short and simple words and common sense. Although most parties agree with this idea, you may find on the way that there are still several conflicts of interests. You should organize more meetings, where everyone can actively participate, exposing their interests and respective reasons. You'll have to act as moderator, always listening and trying to find the solution in order to facilitate the process of reaching an agreement. The only way to have a successful marine protected area is when all parties work together.! PLAN B: there are so many conflicts of interest between different stakeholders that I am in a situation where I can tell you that a powerful minority will be strongly against this idea, against whatever we say. But this area needs to be saved or restored! Don t be dismayed if you find yourself in this situation, it s maybe time to peacefully fight providing that you are not the only one to believe an MPA is the solution! 11

Ok, understood, then, it is time to remember this sentence from Jacques Cousteau: The impossible missions are the only ones to succeed!. First of all, what you have to do is understand clearly why you have such opposition. Is it because of political reasons, corruption, illegal activities, or significant economic benefits driven by unsustainable uses? Cultural issues? Before any action, a thorough analysis of all the stakeholders is needed, especially of those who disagree, and see exactly what they have to lose. It may be that they do not clearly understand the project, or in a wrong way, or that they only see the short-term changes in their way of doing not the mid and long term benefits. Maybe they could be OK to change their habits only if the government help them, or a local politician use this subject to confront is opponent now in charge? So many different reasons could explain this situation and again you should understand. When you tried your best to convince, you have the majority with you and you are clearly confronted to a kind of dictatorship of just a minority, you may need to use a media campaign. Be factual, and remind to everyone the benefits of MPAs, including social and economic ones. It is very difficult to oppose to a win-win situation. The main groups that are usually difficult to convince are fishermen, local coastal developers, nearby industrial plants that may pollute the area, hunters, etc. For each, find the right arguments and if it doesn t work, use action such media campaigns, petition, gathering of supporters, funny actions, and try to always comply with the law while doing that. To learn more about it, you can visit: - Christie P., White A. FAO Expert Workshop on Marine Protected Areas and Fisheries Management: Review of Issues and Considerations. Rome: FAO; 2007. Best practices in governance and enforcement of marine protected areas: an overview; p. 330. - Pollnac R. B., Crawford B. R., Gorospe M. L. G. Discovering factors influencing the success of community-based marine protected areas in the Visayas, Philippines. Ocean and Coastal Management 2001; 44:683-710. 12

4. IS THERE ALREADY ANY LEGAL PROTECTION? We assume that you know for certain that your area of interest is not already designed by law as a marine protected area. But just in case of any doubt, you could refer to the UNEP s database listing the main protected areas of the planet classified through the IUCN different categories. They are also other statutory protections that your area may benefit from, such as in Europe Natura 2000 network, or for particular ecosystems such as Ramsar Convention for Wetlands. One way (the easiest and the most effective) to find it out is to go to the competent authority (local or national) and ask directly, they will most likely have the information you need. If the area of concern has protection, the legal framework is maybe already sufficient. But of course, even it is good news; it is far from enough. Often, and particularly in their early life stages, MPAs may be seen as meaningless paper parks. In spite of this, however, they serve an important role of allowing the public and decision makers to drive sustainable resources utilization, with a proper management plan. 13

You have to look at what are the objectives of this protection, what is the usage plan for the area and what are its limitations. Once you have this information, you will know if your project can implement this kind of protection. For Natura 2000, you should look at the guidelines defined in the Habitat Directive CEE/92/43; these guidelines will help you define the strategy based on the presence of certain species and habitats. If the space doesn t have any kind of protection, in a way the legal assessment is simpler: you need to start from scratch! Another point to consider is if a MPA is proposed entirely within the territorial and internal waters of a nation. If yes, it could be established under the general domestic legislation of that nation. If not, it makes things more complex because another country may have to be involved. Once the MPA is established, the concerned country may decide whether it could also be proposed as part of a wider protected areas network, such as the SPAMI network under the Barcelona Convention for Mediterranean sea or again the Natura 2000 network in Europe, or UNESCO s World Heritage Convention Sites. But only political authorities can drive the process in this direction and only once the MPA exists. Some of the databases you can consult are: http://www.protectedplanet.net/ http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/db_gis/index_en.htm http://ramsar.wetlands.org/database/abouttheramsarsitesdatabase/tabid/812/default.aspx 14

5. GET THE SEED MONEY YOU NEED AND DEVELOP A PROPOSAL We are not talking here about the money needed to create and run a MPA. This is most likely beyond your authority. We here refer to the money you need to insure that points from 1 to 5 are well defined and well established and to prepare a proposal for MPA consideration by the competent government. Funding for the creation of marine protected areas is always a challenge; lack of funds is often an impediment for the founding and management of a MPA. But this will come later; will not be fully in your hands even if you could maybe contribute also to this next strategic fundraising phase. Traditionally, marine protected areas have been operated by government agencies and relied almost exclusively on them. Today, this model is changing, giving managers greater flexibility and allowing them to be more innovative in obtaining funding sources both from public and private sources. We have to differentiate between two types of capital: seed money, which refers to an early investment, in its establishments phase, meant to support the area until it is ready for further investments because now it is legally a proper MPA. Seed money can be used to pay for preliminary operations such as getting a consensus (see point 3 of this document), developing a proposal or invest in science, if necessary to fill important gaps. The management plan (which is going to include a financing plan for a short and long-term), needs usually more funds. Once you 15

have spent this seed capital and you have the first part of the project done (proposal), it will be time to introduce it into the regional or national government for consideration. Generally, governments of developed countries have the obligation to ensure the support and resources needed to achieve the main objectives of a marine protected area. This includes the subsequent development of a management plan and the recruiting of the staff, and related operational costs of the MPA. Your proposal should have the following parts; it is a general canvas that could be changed according to the specificities of your case: Part I. Why do we need a MPA there? What is the purpose of the proposed MPA? What are the expected benefits? It is the rationale for the proposal, where the case is made for the establishment of an MPA as the most effective tool to counteract the known threats to local natural and cultural assets and protect or restore their conservation status Part II. What could be done? It is the definition of the goals of the prospective MPA. It should be based on the existing knowledge that you gathered about the area and that will be exposed more fully later in the document. We recommend you divide this section in goals and related objectives. Part III. Support from stakeholders. In this section, you should show that you have already the support of key stakeholders. You ll need letters to prove it if possible. Part IV. Current state of knowledge and gap analysis Here you could compile all the pertinent bibliographic information (both published or not). You could also show your efforts to already fill some gaps or address the issue of the need for further studies in other to fill the identified gaps. This could be done later on by organising the collection of updated scientific information through dedicated research targeting the species or habitats of concern, human activities in the area, and the existence, types and distribution of threats. The Cousteau Divers community could certainly help you on this. This section should include maps to support decisions on conservation priorities based on links among key species, ecological processes and human activities. Part V. An outline work program In this section you could have a draft program with related schedule showing expected milestones and deliverables. This should include when the MPA is accepted, the subsequent development of a Management Plan. Ways to find seed money: 16 1. Is there a local non-governmental organization or non-profit that can help fund the creation of the MPA? 2. Are there any government agencies that currently fund other MPAs in your country s waters?

3. Local town halls, do they have an environment department with a budget? The benefits of the MPA will rely on everyone in the community. 4. Can you solicit donations from local, national, or international individuals? We find different international sources of funding, and among them we highlight two of the biggest and best known. Biodiversity conservation is increasingly benefiting from the support of multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank. They work mainly to reduce global poverty, and while Marine Protected Areas can be helpful for this, we will have to demonstrate the benefits of conserving biodiversity for the poorest communities. These banks focus mainly on financing projects in developing countries, and almost always for government projects or private projects already approved by the government. Another source of funding is GEF (Global Environment Facility), a program that was created to fund projects to improve the global environment. This project brings together 183 members, developed leading Institutions, the scientific community and a wide spectrum of private industry and nongovernmental Organizations. 5. You can organize a good advertising campaign promoting the wills of funding to unions involved in the potential benefits of the MPA. 6. A recreational and entertaining way to get funding is organizing popular special events (i.e., charity dinners, concerts, audio- visual projections...) through volunteers involved in the cause, in order to gather special or significant members of the community. We believe that the most important thing is that the whole community loves the marine reserve, that it is the community members want to preserve and protect it. It s your task to build a financial plan for your MPA in a way that is compatible with the conservation objectives of the area! If you want to dive deeper, you can visit the following websites: - http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/pag-005.pdf - http://www.komodonationalpark.org/downloads/sustainable_financing_of_mpas.pdf - http://www.thegef.org/gef/ - http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/html/bp8- sustainabletourism/9.%20financial%20aspects%20of%20tourism%20in%20protected% 20areas.html - James, A. N. (1999). Institutional constraints to protected area funding. PARKS 9 (2): 15-26 - Athanas, A., Vorhies, F., Ghersi, F., Shadie, P. and Sheppard, D. (2001). Financing Protected Areas in East Asia. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. 17

6. GET A MANAGEMENT PLAN The Management Plan is a tool to guide managers and other interested parties on how an area should be managed, today and in the future. As a management tool, planning helps protected area managers to define and then achieve the mandate of the protected area under their care. First of all, you clearly have to know what are the management goals of your MPA. - Increase the abundance of a specific marine species? Or marine biodiversity overall? - Help an endangered or threatened marine animal recover its population? - Increase fisheries abundance through spillover benefits? - Protect a sensitive habitat from fishing and other human activities? The specific goals of your MPA will help you designing a management plan and monitoring the success of your area over time. 18

Are there any existing coastal and marine management planning processes that can integrate your MPA management plan? You will eventually need to coordinate your management plan at the regional level. A good management plan requires: 1. Description of the Area Physical Environment Location: Boundaries definition, surface, depth profile Characteristics: orography, sea bed... Biota Marine communities (surface and underwater) EU community interest habitats and species. Identification/list of protected species in the MPA Priority habitats identification (such as Posidonia). Evaluate initial status and mapping for future mooring regulations. Fishing interest species (commercial): If the area is created with the objective of recovering fish stock, we must know the initial situation of target species. Activities developed within the proposed MPA Traditional activities: description of historically conducted activities. Artisanal fisheries: definition, characteristics, current use of the space, and current problems. Other activities: description of new/other activities created around tourism development: Diving: We must know the number of diving centres, dive spots, frequency, seasonality, profile divers, degree of satisfaction Snorkel: We need to know number of centres offering this service, snorkel spots, frequency, seasonality, profile of snorkelers, and degree of satisfaction. Glass bottom boats: We need to know the number of ships, routes (fixed or not), seasonality, number of passengers Taxi boats: We need to know the number of ships, routes (fixed or not), seasonality, number of passengers Boating: port base, capacity, anchorage zones inside MPA Recreational fishing: zones, types, frequency, seasonality... 19

2. Definition of management criteria Recovery and conservation of resources: Define the goals of the creation of the marine protected area. Public use: define the strategy for the use of the MPA. Regulation of fishing: You need to define the degree of regulation in the area and within the buffer zone Regulation of touristic activities: Diving: Diving will be permitted? Are we going to regulate the number of dives? They will need a special license? Fee per immersion? Fee per diver? Snorkelling areas will be limited? Glass bottom boats: routes and time spent within the area will be regulated? Taxi boats: Routs, velocities, number of boats will be regulated? Boating: Anchoring within the zone will be regulated? Anchorage places? Installation of fixed boys? Regulation of sport activities Regulation of recreational fishing with fishing rods or spear. Periodic monitoring and research (two different things) Periodic monitoring Assess the development of the area according to expected results. If we expect the recovery of a fishery stock, we will have to keep track of the descriptors related to this goal. If we expect the area to generate positive variation of other activities, we will need to define specific descriptors. Research/Investigation: Scientific studies with some of the following purposes Provide basic information for management and decision-making. Develop strategies to avoid or minimize the negative impacts of all activities taking place in the area. Determine the causes of the problems identified in the management of area resources and provide solutions for its eradication or minimization. Design recovery alternatives and develop restoration methods for resources altered by anthropogenic causes. Understand the ecosystem, its components, its status and its functionality in order to maintain or regain a favourable conservation status. 20 Surveillance: Define the type of monitoring Owner of the reserve?

Administration? Fishermen s Association? Is it necessary to define a sanctioning regime? 3. Definition of the management organ: You ll have to describe the components of the area management team (advisory council)? a. Composition Proposal Representation of national or regional government: environment, fisheries, coasts, ports... Local government representation Representation of artisanal fisheries Touristic sector representation Taxi boats Hotels, restaurants... Diving Centres Glass bottom boats... Sports sector representation Recreational Boating Recreational Fishing Specialists on marine topics representation Universities and Research Centres NGOs b. Management Organ functions " Definition of the functions " The standing committee: Executing entity formed by some members of the management organ. 21

7. HOW CAN COUSTEAU DIVERS HELP YOU? After reading the seven previous chapters, we hope you have a better understanding of the process of creating marine protected areas can be divided into three phases: 1) The first one, is based on getting everything necessary for the establishment of the area (information, consensus building, communication, advertising, initial studies...) 2) The second phase would be the establishing process of the area. 3) The third one would involve the development of surveillance and the monitoring of the area once it has been established. For each phase there are several ways the Cousteau Divers community can help. For example in the initial phase, local divers can be involved in lobbying for the idea of creating a MPA, but also to fill some of the gaps in the existing knowledge of the area of concern. For example, you can use the Cousteau Divers dive log tool (http://www.cousteaudivers.org/science/newdivelogs), to contribute to assessing the area you want to protect. This can be a great way to get other scuba divers and snorkelers involved, as they can help collect data and 22

learn about the area too. This is also a good way to document the initial state of the chosen area for future analytical studies. Also, a very good idea is to contact local scientists and study together with them how to support their work. Remember here, we are not interested in science for science but more to get data that can be useful for the management and the monitoring of the MPA. If you are in the second phase, this means that a decision to create the MPA has been made, but we still need to convince the stakeholders that it is indeed a brilliant idea. This phase needs lots of talking and explanation on how the MPA could be a superb tool for the local economy. It is time for you, as a Cousteau Diver, to become a local ambassador of this initiative, and try to convince the sceptics. Once in the phase 3, you are now dealing with the long-term commitment as a Cousteau Diver. Hopefully you have contributed to this success. But if we don t want it to become just a paper MPA, the Marine Protected Area still needs you! There are needs to apply the Cousteau Divers survey linked to your area in order to assess regularly the state of the environment of the MPA, to check if it is being a success or not. You could also be partner with other Cousteau Divers and maybe with a Cousteau Diver Centre, if there is one in your zone, you can organise special trips purely focusing on collecting the data. In addition, you could become a kind of custodian, reporting to local authorities, or other NGOs, any infringement that you may witness (people fishing in no permitted areas or a boat throwing overboard their waste.). And of course, always act as a ambassador of this MPA: public communication, education and awareness-raising on the importance/vulnerability of marine ecosystems and the benefits of the MPA, as various education and outreach programmes, such as ocean day events, community visits and conferences in local schools may be organised. Regarding to advertising, from our team Cousteau Divers we will help you with the necessary communication for the dissemination of your project, to reach as many people as possible through social networks. Retrieving a blue ocean full of life is possible, and as stated earlier in this document, we are the protagonists that can make this challenge real. We dive because we love the sea. And love is to feel, is fun, enjoyment, and desire; but it is also care, protection, it is striving to build and preserve; sometimes love is risk..., excitement, it s the desire to build a project... it is in conclusion, a challenge. 23

And this is the challenge suggested by Cousteau Divers. Maybe with an uncertain future, but with an exciting course! Hard work, study and fun are guaranteed From the beginning, this is a project that will promote exchange, alliances, discussions, the exercise of persuasion, of diplomacy; drinks with friends, dinners with rivals, rides for meditation, go deeper on knowledge, pursuit of ideas, the finding and the explosion of them; the encounter with our illusions, the encounter with our limitations, the approach to our neighbours, the understanding of those less heard... In this challenge you won t be alone. We are thousands, millions, those who feel the desire to participate in the construction of a healthier environment, greener, more humane. Are you going to join the challenge? 24